<
https://www.newyorker.com/culture/annals-of-gastronomy/the-english-apple-is-disappearing>
"In June, 1899, Sabine Baring-Gould, an English rector, collector of folk
songs, and author of a truly prodigious quantity of prose, was putting the
finishing touches on “A Book of the West,” a two-volume study of Devon and
Cornwall. Baring-Gould, who had fifteen children and kept a tame bat, wrote
more than a thousand literary works, including some thirty novels, a biography
of Napoleon, and an influential study of werewolves. In the preface to his
latest, he wrote that it was neither a guide book nor a history of the
counties, which would have made it too heavy to carry. Instead, Baring-Gould
had chosen to “pick out some incident, or some biography” to elucidate the
places that he described. The town of Honiton was notable for its lace; Torquay
for its caves; Tiverton for Old Snow, a kindly male witch who had died a few
years earlier.
Baring-Gould devoted thirteen pages of his description of Crediton, a “curious,
sleepy place” on the banks of the river Creedy, in the heart of Devon, to its
apples. For months of the year, the town was awash in fruit and cider. The soil
all around was red. In the orchards, trees were heavy with everything from
“griggles” (small, stunted apples left over for children) to storied
cider-making varieties, such as Kingston Black and Cherry Pearmain. In the
fall, Baring-Gould wrote, “The grass of the orchard is bright with crimson and
gold as though it were studded with jewels.” Life in the Creedy valley was
dense with ancient apple lore, such as “S. Frankin’s Days,” in May, when the
Devil might bring a late frost; the firing of blank charges into the bare
branches of apple trees on Old Christmas Day, to bring good luck; and
“wassailing” the trees, or singing to their health. There had been tough times
for apple growers earlier in the century, with the rise of beer and imports
from America. But those threats were on the wane. “The trees are having their
good times again,” Baring-Gould wrote."
Via
Reasons to be Cheerful:
<
https://reasonstobecheerful.world/what-were-reading-apple-mapping-conservation/>
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
